Yes. No federal or North Dakota law bars someone with a felony from working in the oilfield. What exists is a short list of credentials and clearances, each with its own rules. The three that matter are the TSA hazmat endorsement, the ATF clearance to handle explosives, and your CDL when a vehicle was part of the crime. Everything else is a conversation with a hiring manager, not a rule.
I worked on a drilling rig where I was the only hand on the crew who had not been to prison. Every other guy out there had done time. Good hands, every one of them, and I would work with any of them again.
A whole crew is on the far end of it, but guys with records are all over out here. You work with them, nobody makes anything of it, and the work gets done like it does anywhere else.
And it is not just the bottom of the crew. I have worked under company men with records. So if you are sitting there thinking a felony means you take whatever seat you can get and that is your ceiling forever, that is not how it has gone for the guys I have watched do it.
Every week somebody asks us this anyway and nobody gives them a straight answer. Recruiters dodge it, the job sites do not touch it, and what you find online is written by people who have never been on a location.
So here it is with the regulation numbers attached, so you can go read it yourself instead of taking anyone's word for it.
Roustabout, swamper, floorhand, shop hand, yard work. There is no federal list attached to any of those seats. A company can decide what it wants to do about a record, and different companies decide differently, but the government is not in that conversation.
Where the government does show up is credentials. That is a much smaller box than most guys think it is.
If you want to haul placarded loads you need the H endorsement on your CDL, and that means a TSA background check. The rules live in 49 CFR 1572.103. Anybody can pull it up right now and read it in about four minutes.
There are two lists in it, and the difference between them is the whole ballgame.
The permanent list is short. Espionage, sedition, treason, a federal crime of terrorism, a transportation security incident, improper transport of hazardous material, explosives offenses, murder, threats involving explosives or lethal devices, and RICO where one of those is the underlying act. That is a life bar and there is no waiting it out.
The interim list is everything else that is listed. Firearms and weapons offenses, extortion, bribery, smuggling, immigration offenses, arson, robbery, kidnapping, rape or aggravated sexual abuse, assault with intent to kill, fraud or dishonesty, and distribution, possession with intent to distribute, or importation of a controlled substance.
Those only disqualify you inside a window. Convicted within 7 years of applying, or released from incarceration within 5 years of applying. Clear both and the offense stops disqualifying you. That is written into the regulation itself, not an interpretation.
| List | What it covers | How long it blocks you |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent | Terrorism, espionage, sedition, treason, murder, explosives, transportation security incident, improper hazmat transport, related RICO | For life |
| Interim | Firearms, robbery, arson, extortion, kidnapping, assault with intent to kill, fraud, distribution or possession with intent | 7 years from conviction, or 5 years from release |
There is also a waiver process. If the record is accurate but you can show you are not a security threat, you can apply for one under 49 CFR 1515.7. If the record itself is wrong or wrongly classified, that is an appeal under 49 CFR 1515.5, and you have 60 days to file it. Most interim offenses can be waived. A narrow set of the permanent ones cannot.
The endorsement itself runs $86.50, or $41.00 if you already hold a valid TWIC. Give it weeks, not days, especially if there is anything on your record to sort out.
This is where guys beat themselves before anyone else gets a chance to.
Simple possession is not on either list. The regulation says distribution, possession with intent to distribute, or importation. Simple possession does not appear.
DUI is not on either list. Not the permanent one, not the interim one.
Misdemeanors are not on either list. Both lists are felonies.
The regulation even goes out of its way to say welfare fraud and passing bad checks do not count as the dishonesty offenses it is talking about.
There is one more section behind the two lists, 49 CFR 1572.107. It lets TSA turn down an application when the check shows extensive convictions, a serious crime that is not on either list, or more than 365 days in a row locked up. TSA makes that call case by case, and it can be appealed under 49 CFR 1515.9.
Whether your specific charge lines up with a listed category can be a real fight, and the possession versus possession with intent line is the one that decides it most often. If yours sits anywhere near that line, that is worth twenty minutes with a lawyer before you assume anything either direction.
Any seat where you would handle explosives has its own federal check. Out here that mostly means wireline and perforating work, where the guns are loaded with explosive charges and fired with a detonator.
A company licensed for explosives has to report every hand it authorizes to handle them, and ATF checks each one against 18 U.S.C. 842(i). That is the list of people barred from possessing explosives.
It works differently from the hazmat lists. There are no named offenses and no 7 year or 5 year window. It bars anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison, which takes in every felony. That goes by what the charge carried on the books, even if you never served a day of it. Being under indictment for one bars you too until the case is resolved.
If you come back barred, ATF sends you a letter with the reason, how to appeal it and how to get the bar lifted. An appeal has to go in writing within 45 days.
Getting it lifted takes a relief application on ATF Form 5400.29, with fingerprints, references and your court records. ATF can grant it when it is satisfied you are not likely to be a danger to public safety, and it generally will not until you have been off parole or probation for at least 2 years. You cannot handle explosives while it is pending.
So if you have a felony and you are looking at wireline or perforating work, ask about the ATF check first.
Different regulation. 49 CFR 383.51.
It only reaches a felony where a vehicle was part of the crime. A felony with no vehicle involved at all is not a CDL disqualifier under that section.
Where a vehicle was involved, it comes down to whether you held a CDL or a permit at the time. If you did, any vehicle counts, your own pickup included. Using one to commit a felony takes you out of a truck for 1 year the first time, 3 years if you were hauling hazmat, and for life on a second one. Using any vehicle in a felony involving manufacturing, distributing or dispensing a controlled substance is a lifetime disqualification, and that one does not come back.
If you did not hold a CDL or a permit yet, only a felony committed with a commercial vehicle counts against you under that section.
The line about a felony taking your CDL gets repeated in every yard in the country, and it is wrong as a general statement. Go read the section.
Here is the part almost nobody explains, and it is the reason the same record gets a yes at one company and a no at the next one down the road.
Carriers run on commercial auto and liability coverage, and the underwriter sets the rules on who can be behind the wheel. If the underwriter will not cover a driver, the carrier cannot hire that driver no matter how badly they need bodies and no matter what the recruiter thinks of you.
Common look-back windows run about 5 to 7 years on a felony, sometimes 10 on anything theft or cargo related. Those are not laws. They are market practice, they move with the insurance market, and they are different from one carrier to the next because the insurers are different.
Which means one no out here means almost nothing. Ask each place what window applies to your offense type, then go to the next one. Guys quit after two rejections on a record that four other outfits would have taken.
North Dakota has no ban the box law covering private employers. They can ask about criminal history right on the application, and most of them do. Plan on the question showing up early.
Record sealing changed here in 2025 and a lot of what is written online about it is out of date.
| Type | Wait before you can petition |
|---|---|
| Misdemeanor | 3 years clean |
| Non-violent felony | 5 years from completing your sentence |
| Violent felony | 10 years |
You file in the court that sentenced you. Two things changed last year that matter if you have been down this road before. HB 1263 cut the wait to re-petition after a denial from 3 years to 1, and opened up the right to appeal a denial. HB 1166 auto-closes non-conviction records after 61 days on cases ending on or after August 1, 2025.
North Dakota seals rather than destroys, so a sealed record is made confidential rather than erased. It still does the job for a background check.
One thing that trips people up. A DUI cannot be sealed under Chapter 12-60.1 at all. DUI records run on their own statute with their own rules, so if that is what you are trying to clear, you are looking at a different process than the one above.
If you are talking to a smaller outfit, and out here a lot of the good seats are at smaller outfits, these two are worth knowing because there is a decent chance the owner has never heard of either one.
The Federal Bonding Program. A free fidelity bond, starting at $5,000, covering the employer for 6 months, no deductible, no cost to the company or to you. It exists specifically to cover employers who hire people with records. It runs through Job Service North Dakota. That is the answer when somebody tells you they cannot bond you, which is an objection a lot of guys hear and nobody ever explains.
The Work Opportunity Tax Credit. This was up to $2,400 for hiring someone within a year of conviction or release. Be careful with this one right now. Authority to claim it lapsed on January 1, 2026 and Congress has not reauthorized it. Job Service is still taking applications, but we are not going to tell you it is money in hand when it is not. Check where it stands before you put it in front of an employer.
North Dakota unemployment was 2.2% in August 2026, the same as July. It is one of the tightest labor markets in the country and it has been for a while.
The last state-level openings count BLS published put North Dakota at about 21,000 job openings, with roughly half an unemployed person for every opening. That figure is from December 2025, because BLS moved the state release from monthly to annual, but the direction has not changed since.
Two openings for every person looking. That math is on your side and it does not stay that way forever. Tight labor is the single best condition for getting a second look, and it is the condition right now.
Not the record. The surprise.
They are running the check either way. Guys do not get run off for having a felony. They get run off because the company found it on their own after hiring, and now the guy who did not mention it looks like a guy who hides things.
Put it on the table yourself. Say what it was, say when, and be able to say what is different now. That is a two-minute conversation and it ends most of the time with the job.
Pull your own criminal record and your own MVR before you spend a dollar on a school or an endorsement. You cannot plan around a record you have not read.
Read 1572.103 and find out whether anything on your record is actually on either list. Check whether any felony involved a vehicle, and whether you held a CDL or a permit when it happened. Most guys find out the answer is no on both counts.
If you are close to a sealing window, make the call. Three years, five years, ten years depending on what it was, filed in the court that sentenced you.
Then apply wide. Ask each company what window they run and why. One no is one insurer's opinion, not a verdict on you.
We are hands, not attorneys. Everything above is the regulation as written and where to find it. Your record is yours and the details decide it, so if anything here sits close to the line, talk to a North Dakota lawyer before you assume.
These are the seats this applies to, and what each one takes to get into.
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